Moldova Criminal charges against human rights lawyer Anna Aladova
Anna Aladova, human rights lawyer from Moldova, was notified on 15 August 2012 that her case has been received by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Republic of Moldova, which must now determine which is the competent judicial authority to consider the criminal charges against her.
Aladova works for the Regional Bureau of the National Legal Aid Council (NLAC). She represents victims of human rights violations. Besides that, she has represented clients in the European Court of Human Rights on several occasions.
On 23 January 2012 it became apparent that Aladova was accused of “fraud”. According to the Deputy Attorney that was accusing her, Aladova would have misinformed the NLAC Regional Bureau regarding the services she had been providing as a lawyer. She allegedly was reporting to the Bureau that she was providing legal services which she had not been providing. In a private conversation with the Deputy Attorney (which Aladova secretly recorded) the Deputy Attorney alluded to the fact Aladova was being targeted for reasons other than those which he had stated in the criminal complaint. He told her several times that she “talks too much”. A few weeks before she was accused, Aladova filed a complaint regarding the refusal by the police to disclose the whereabouts of one of her clients who had been transferred from a prison to an unknown location. Hereafter a police officer aggressively confronted her, shouting that she talked too much and threatening to open a criminal case against her. According to Aladova, this is the real reason for the accusations against her.
On 14 February 2012, Anna Aladova filed a complaint to the General Prosecutor’s Office, in which she claimed she was being harassed and illegally persecuted. She demanded that the criminal procedures against her be suspended and that measures be taken against those behind the persecution. Her complaint was rejected.
L4L condemns the criminal charges against Anna Aladova, for it seems she is targeted for her legitimate activities in the role of a lawyer. L4L continues to monitor the case and is currently considering the actions to be taken for Anna Aladova.